Bird strikes a common hazard, but aviation experts say there’s more to Jeju Air crash

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Investigators are examining a bird strike among the potential causes leading to South Korea’s worst aviation disaster in history.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216 crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday (Dec 29), killing all but two of the 181 people onboard, when it touched down on its belly with no visible landing gear and skidded off the runway in a fiery explosion.

Minutes before the plane crashed, air traffic controllers warned of a bird strike and the pilot issued a “mayday” warning.

However, aviation experts are sceptical that a bird strike is the sole cause, warning that other factors likely contributed to the crash.

Matt Driskill, editor of the Asian Aviation magazine, said that while collisions between a plane in flight and birds are not uncommon, bird strikes are unlikely to affect the lowering of the landing gear.

“The mystery to me is … why the landing gear was not deployed. It looked like the nose gear was still contained within the fuselage,” he told CNA’s Asia First a day after the tragedy.

“This appears to be a very uncommon occurrence. Bird strikes affecting landing gear is something that I’ve never heard of.”

Independent aviation analyst Alvin Lie added: “If a bird hits one of the engines, the worst thing that can happen is the engine shuts down. Bird strikes do not cause the landing gear to fail or the flaps not to be able to be extended. So, there must be other reasons.”

ARE BIRD STRIKES COMMON?

Bird strikes are a relatively common problem for aviation, but rarely result in serious accidents.

Last year, the United States recorded an average of 54 wildlife strikes per day, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Most of the strikes involved birds although wildlife also includes animals like deer.

About 90 per cent of bird strikes happen near airports, when an aircraft is taking off or landing, or flying at lower altitudes, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The most famous bird strike incident occurred in 2009 when a US Airways plane made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York after striking a flock of geese. All 155 crew and passengers onboard survived.

Experts said bird strikes may shut down an engine or in rare cases, two – like the Airbus in the Hudson River incident, but planes remain unaffected in most cases.

LANDING GEAR AND RUNWAY WALL

Analysts are puzzled over why the plane touched down without landing gears, saying it is unusual as there are alternative systems to lower them.

“The bird strike (might have) caused a total electrical malfunction of the aircraft, but the pilots should still have been able to release those wheels in some way,” said aviation analyst Paul Charles.

“We have to let the investigators discover if the engines were at fault, or there was another mechanical issue which was exacerbated by the bird strike.”

Footage showed the plane disintegrating as it skidded along the runway before ultimately slamming into a wall at high speed in the overrun area, exploding into flames.

Experts said there could have been fewer casualties if the runway did not end with the solid structure.

“It seems the plane was engulfed in fire because it hit the wall. Why is there a massive concrete wall in the perimeters of the airport? There are supposed only to be fences, not massive walls,” said Lie.

However, South Korea’s deputy transport minister Joo Jong-wan said the runway’s 2,800m length was not a contributing factor, and that walls at the ends were built to industry standards.

SOUTH KOREA, 737-800 TRACK RECORD

The twin-engine 737-800 jetliner has a strong safety record and is considered a dependable and popular aircraft for short-haul flights, said analysts. 

There are about 4,000 of the aircraft model in service, used by some 200 airlines, accounting for 15 per cent of the total number of planes flying in the world.

“This is a plane that a lot of carriers rely on… it’s generally seen as the workhorse of short hops under five hours. Overall, it has a really good safety record,” said Charles.

South Korea is considered among the safest countries for air travel in recent times, with experts saying it has an excellent record with maintenance, repair and overhaul.

Jeju Air is South Korea’s largest low-cost carrier, operating about 40 planes, most of them 737-800s.

The crash on Sunday was the airline’s first fatal accident since it was founded in 2005. 

The doomed jet was about 15 years old, and was previously flown by Ryanair until 2017, when it was transferred to Jeju Air.

It was arriving from Thailand’s capital Bangkok and was reportedly in good mechanical conditions, said analysts.

INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN

South Korea’s aviation authority is investigating the crash, assisted by America’s National Transportation Safety Board, FAA and Boeing.

The flight and voice recorders from the plane have been recovered, and will shed light on its final moments. However, Yonhap reported that the flight recorder was retrieved partially damaged, which will complicate the investigation process.

A flight recorder tracks an aircraft’s performance and condition, while the cockpit voice recorder will reveal communications between the pilots in the cockpit and the ground.

Analysts said multiple questions remain, including whether technical issues encountered on the plane two days before the incident had anything to do with its ultimate demise.

Last Friday, the plane was on a routine flight from Jeju to Beijing when it was diverted to Incheon, South Korea’s main airport. The flight later continued to the Chinese capital.

Experts said it will take investigators at least several weeks to decode the recorders and fully analyse the information.

“There are a lot of questions which we need to find the answers to, and we really have to look at the data … to find the exact cause of the crash and issue recommendations to prevent similar incidents,” Lie said.